Author: darkhavensTitle: One of EachPairing: Spike/XanderRating: RFeedback: darkhavens @ slashverse.comConcrit: by email, pleaseDisclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.Warnings/Squicks: Someone's arse gets paddledNotes: Three unconnected peeks into the world of baby!vamp!Xander.

Unlife In SoCal

Babes in bikinis, pretty boys in tight short shorts - oh yeah, the SoCal vampires loved the summer. They picnicked in the parks and they barbequed on the beaches. They snacked their way from Monterey to southern San Diego.

Once the sun was set they'd dive the cliffs along the coast; they'd surf the still-warm water till it cooled. They always got invited to the most exclusive parties, and they didn't always leave their hosts for dead.

A summer of sea, sand, sex - and suddenly they were bored. A pair of ADHD vamps on the hunt for a fun new game.

Count'Em

THWACK!

"Thirty six!"

THWACK!

"Thirty s...seven."

THWACK!

"Thirty - unh - eight."

THWACK!

"Thirty nine!"

THWACK!

"Aaaaaaaah! Forty."

Xander shivered slightly as Spike ran cool, soothing palms over the tingling skin of his cushion-raised buttocks then tweaked his leather-bound cock.

"So, luv, what do you think about your new rosewood paddle? It certainly makes a bloody lovely noise against your arse."

"It's... Gods, Spike, it's amazing! I don't think I could move if the bed caught fire, it's that good."

"Yeah? Must be the holes. I've never seen them mixed like that before. Now shift and let your Sire have a turn."

Never Be Free

Willow tried not to hear the small dark voice inside her head; the one that told her Xander was the luckiest of them all. It told her he was free to be whatever he could be, free of mortal fears and pains and boundaries. Together he and Spike could live forever, and they might, and then the voice would whisper 'so could you'.

The power, the possibility, thrummed like music though her veins, and yet she continued to resist. She knew that Xander wouldn't, couldn't, want to be this soulless thing; she couldn't bear to leave his soul in torment.